Dancing in a city in the sky September 2, 2009
Posted by tracybarnett in : Indigenous culture, New Mexico , trackbackACOMA PUEBLO, N.M. — Today I’m preparing for a glimpse into the past, a day when the ancestors dance with the living in a village in the sky.
Acoma Pueblo glistens in the late afternoon sunlight as it must have when Spanish explorer Coronado first saw it.
It’s San Esteban’s Feast Day at Acoma Pueblo, a village that vies with Taos Pueblo for the distinction of being the oldest continually inhabited village in the United States. Also called Sky City, this pueblo sits atop a mesa as it has for a thousand years. This was one of the so-called Seven Cities of Gold that Coronado found in his trek across these lands; historians speculate it was the mica windows glinting in the sun that gave the Spaniard the idea that the inhabitants were harboring a wealth of gold, but their only wealth lay in their rich traditions.
Yesterday we toured the village and the beautiful the Sky City Cultural Center at its base. Award-winning Acoma potters Lee and Florinda Villo gave us a demonstration of their work, and we dined with Chef Lawrence “Jay” Riley at the Yaaka Cafe, where he prepares the native dishes of his childhood but with a chefly flair.
Today we won’t be able to take our cameras because of the sacred nature of the event we’re about to see. But here’s a glimpse of the cultural center and Acoma Pueblo, the village in the sky. (check back later for captions – now I have to run!)
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